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21/10/2006

Conference Day

After months of preparation and planning, the momentous day had finally arrived, Friday 20th October and Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom - a one day conference was about to begin. The Lead Practitioner event was attended by nearly forty delegates whose teaching backgrounds ranged from primary to adult education. About half were from the Isle of Wight which I was delighted about considering one of the principal aims of an LP event is to strengthen links in your local network.

The day itself ran very smoothly and judging by the evaluation forms colleagues felt very positive about the training they had received. The Nodehill film crew filmed throughout the conference, the results of which will be published after half term. The podcast we made during the workshop yesterday is now live on the web and as promised here is the PowerPoint presentation (26MB), video tutorial (2MB) and audio recording of my session A Year in the Life of a MFL Blogger (36MB). Notes from other speakers will be either posted or linked here at a later date.

I feel exhausted, but very proud that such an event, arguably the first of its kind in England, has taken place on the Isle of Wight. I am very grateful to speakers Mark Pentleton, Lynne Horn, John Hopwood, Lesley Welsh and Glynis Rumley who travelled from Scotland, Liverpool, Hartlepool and Kent to make the conference possible. Let's hope thanks to the conference, delegates have gone away with many practical ideas on how to use technology in their teaching. If so, the conference can be deemed as an undoubted success.

Comments

Thanks for posting these - it sounds like things went really well and you had a great crowd come over the water to it. I'm sorry I couldn't make it in person or virtually. That's one part of the blogging life that needs to get sorted out for people - there's still a need for a new blogging tool that takes out a few minutes in the process ;-)

Great shame you couldn't make it to the conference, Ewan. I would have loved you to have been there in person or virtually. Nevermind. You are cited quite a few times in my presentation as a source of inspiration nonetheless!

Thanks for organising this very inspiring event. I have taken lots of good ideas home which I will hopefully be able to turn into reality very soon. Podcasting and blogging are definitely the way forward to personalise learning as they allow access at a time, pace and space of your own choosing as well as differentiation of support. A MUST try for all those out there whose MFL time is being cut down and for those who would like to offer independent language learning opportunities to students who - for one reason or another - wouldn't/couldn't choose MFL at KS4/5 but want to develop some language.
Thanks again, I really enjoyed this and would recommend a follow up event!

Mark: I see on your school website that you run an annual residential French trip where you go and meet some French pupils. Why not set up a blog so that they can leave comments about work your pupils are doing and vice versa as well as for posting pictures of the trip?

Thanks for taking the time to upload the audio recording and powerpoint for those of us who couldn't make it. You've achieved an enormous amount in a year, as well as inspiring a whole host of teachers. Congratulations.

Wow!!! I am still recovering from such a mind-blowing day! You'd be proud to hear that I have already been working on some of the ideas presented on the various sessions I was lucky to attend. Just as well we've got a week off! I've really been spurred on to try out quite a few things! Many thanks to Joe and all the speakers! C'etait super!

Thanks for your comment. My plan is to podcast and publish the presentations I do from now on. That way, language teachers can take their time to explore the ideas presented at their own pace.

It would be great if colleagues returned the favour by sending me links to the podcasts or blogs they create so I can write about them here. I'd love to see MFL bloggers and podcasters starting up all over the country. There is no reason why we cannot replicate what is currently happening in Scotland.

At present, I know of about five or six English MFL bloggers of which you are one Ruth. Who knows how many there could be this time next year given the right support? I'm quite happy to offer advice if need be and I know from experience that there are many other bloggers out there who would do the same.

I'm delighted that the conference was inspiring. Now let's use these ideas and put them into practice. I'm sure our pupils would love it!

Fantastic day - mind blowing. Spent several hours at home immersed in the virtual world researching all I had heard about today (much to families dismay).
Have downloaded audacity and have an official blog now for my school - yes it is easy, now I need to go away and fiddle with it.
Anyway thanx to all those who have inspired me especially to Joe and his merry band of podcasters!

Brilliant news Kyra. Have you downloaded my PowerPoint presentation? I suggest you work your way through the Show Notes on the penultimate slide, if you haven't done already. Drop me a line if you get stuck at all.

I am trying to encourage more secondary school teachers to join EUROCALL and give presentations at its international and national conferences and workshops. Have a look at the EUROCALL website:
European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning (founded 1986)http://www.eurocall-languages.org
This year’s annual international conference in Spain was the first to include a “Virtual Strand”, namely a blog, a wiki, live text chat and streamed recordings of the keynotes. It was an important initiative for me as, due to illness, I was unable to attend the “real” conference. Do have a look at this year’s conference blog (which is still active) and the wiki:http://eurocall2006blog.blogspot.com/http://eurocall2006.wikispaces.com/
A wiki, by the way, is another way of sharing information and exchanging ideas on the Web. It’s quite easy to set up a workshop wiki (as above) and a personal wiki. Here’s my personal wiki:http://grahamdavies.wikispaces.com/
And, of course, there’s Wikipedia, where you’ll find an article on Computer Assisted Language Learning. Anyone can add to or amend the article – which is the basic idea of a wiki. See:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_assisted_language_learning

Hi Joe
I gave a seminar at the British Council National Conference on Friday on using emerging technologies to enable students access to the real world through ICT.http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2006/11/15/keep-it-real/
I've just received an email from Chris Gallacher to say that we should get in touch.
We seem to be virtual ships that pass in the night!
I used to be an MFL teacher, but now I'm an ICT AST and LP. I'm exploring lots of ways for students to communicate with their peers in other countries via the web.
If you fancy swapping some ideas you know how to find me!
p.s. I'm well impressed by your clustr map! Looks like I need a few more friends!
Alex